The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession

A New York Times Bestseller

In her groundbreaking history of 175 years of American education, Dana Goldstein finds answers previously to the controversies that plague our public schools as of late.

In The Teacher Wars, a wealthy, vigorous, and unprecedented history of public school teaching, Dana Goldstein reveals that teachers have been embattled for almost two centuries. She uncovers the surprising roots of hot button issues, from teacher tenure to charter schools, and finds that up to date popular ideas to strengthen schools—instituting merit pay, evaluating teachers by student test scores, ranking and firing veteran teachers, and recruiting “elite” graduates to show—are all approaches which have been tried previously without producing widespread change. The Teacher Wars upends the conversation about American education by bringing the lessons of history to bear at the dilemmas we confront as of late. By asking “How did we get here?” Dana Goldstein brilliantly illuminates the path forward.